WarCriminalsWatch Events

Please join Alliance for Justice and Center for American Progress for this special presentation.

The reception will begin at 6:00 p.m. and the program promptly at 6:30 p.m.

Admission is free.

Click here to RSVP.

Featured panelists:

Nan Aron, President, Alliance for Justice

David Cole, Professor of Law, Georgetown University

Bruce Fein, Chairman of the American Freedom Agenda

Moderator:

Ken Gude, Associate Director, International Rights and Responsibilities, Center for American Progress

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After a five-year investigation, the Justice Department's Office of
Professional Responsibility finally concluded in a report released on
February 19, 2010, that Bush administration Office of Legal Counsel
officials John Yoo and Jay Bybee "exercised poor judgment" for their
role in drafting the 2002 memos that authorized the use of techniques
otherwise understood to constitute torture in detainee interrogations.
However, a Department of Justice official overruled OPR's recommendation
and determined that the officials should not be referred to their
respective bar associations for investigation of professional
misconduct. 

The release of the report has spurred criticism, particularly because
OPR staff could not interview key witnesses or review hundreds of
e-mails written by the lawyers. Why were critical records destroyed? Why
were witnesses and materials kept from investigators? Broader questions
also remain: Were these lawyers simply giving the President their best
legal advice? Or was their work part of a larger conspiracy to distort
the law and assisted their client in criminal or fraudulent conduct? 

Please join the Center for American Progress and the Alliance for
Justice for a discussion about the OPR report and next steps toward
torture accountability. A screening of Alliance for Justice's short
documentary film Tortured Law will proceed a panel discussion moderated
by Ken Gude, Associate Director of the Center for American Progress
International Rights and Responsibilities program.